SECTION 2 – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Walking is essential to the daily health and activity for the citizens of the City of Sandy Springs; especially the school age children of our community grades K-8. Thomas Jefferson said it best, "of all exercise walking is best". With these thoughts in mind, in 2007, the City of Sandy Springs created the sidewalk program initiative. This program was created to identify, prioritize, and fund needed pedestrian improvements inside the City limits. The first priority of this program is ensuring pedestrian access in the vicinity of public schools. The City to date has installed 12,200 feet of sidewalks and spent $543,000 in funding towards implementing better pedestrian accommodations around schools. With this project, the City would like to complete the network in the first priority program area (Area 1) which is shown on the attached location map that is provided. This program area currently does not have the needed pedestrian facilities on the south side of Dunwoody Place which links pedestrians that travel in and around the Sandy SpringsMiddle School to both residential and commercial origins and destinations that experience high pedestrian volumes. Based on the attached photos, the pedestrian demand can be seen from the desire lines that have been worn into the shoulder of the roadway along Dunwoody Place. Due to the fact that facilities are not currently in place in this high pedestrian demand area, a project is needed to implement these facilities in order to increase the safety of those pedestrians that use this corridor daily.
SECTION 3 – PROPOSED PROJECT
B.
Currently there are sidewalks that connect to the Sandy SpringsMiddle School along Colonel Drive which connect to North River Parkway and then Roswell Road in the northern direction. To the south, the sidewalks on Colonel Drive connect to Roberts Drive and then end at Dunwoody Place. Currently there are no sidewalks on the south side of this corridor which has a high demand for pedestrian traffic as shown by the desire paths and pedestrians in the attached photos. The completion of this project would provide a complete pedestrian network in this program area in and around Sandy SpringsMiddle School.
C.
As can be seen by the attached photos, there are a number of pedestrians currently using the Dunwoody Place facility that walk even though there are not adequate facilities in place. This project will improve pedestrian safety by providing an adequate facility as well as not requiring pedestrians to walk in the street or mud when it rains. Also, this project will encourage others to change their behavior and walk more after these improvements are made. This project will definitely improve the safety for those walking in the area of Sandy SpringsMiddle School.
SECTION 4 – PROGRAM INFORMATION
Education: all students currently take a Health class in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. In this class they discuss bike and pedestrian safety and making good health related choices such as walking. In seventh grade Life Science, students study ecology and the benefits of pollution free transportation. Enforcement: we have a full time resource officer to direct traffic and establish procedures for high traffic times such as the beginning and ending of the school days. We also have a very good relationship with the Sandy Springs police department who make regular patrols around our campus and the surrounding neighborhoods at dismissal time. Encouragement: we have not had special events or assemblies related to SRTS, however, we could easily schedule some events, or start a bike or walking club. We will be starting a running club as a part of a Healthy Habits grant that we have been awarded. Students will participate in two corporate sponsored races as a result of this grant. Evaluation: the City of Sandy Springs, with whom we are partnering for this grant, has agreed to help us produce traffic counts, surveys, and documentation of completed tasks, should we be awarded this grant.